490 



DAMARS. 



The following article on local Damars will be read with interest. 

 These resins are produced b}^ a number of the large Dipterocarpous 

 trees, natives of the Malay peninsula. They are usually collected by 

 natives searching in the forests for spots where old trees have 

 decayed or where masses of the resin are to be found lying in the soil, 

 having dropped from the trees. Locally the substance is chiefly used 

 for damar torches, caulking boats, etc. In the home trade they find 

 their way into varnishes. 



The most valuable are the transparent resins such as those from 

 the Balaywcarpi, known as Penak or Chengei and the Mata Kuching 

 Damar from Hopeas. The resins from Shoreas are usually opaque, 

 yellowish or brownish, and rather chalky. The black resins often in 

 long pipes often met with in the forests are usually the produce of 

 some species of Canarium ( Burseraceae). They are apparently not 

 much valued on account of their dark colour. Some years ago an 

 attempt was made to start a Damar industry near Raub by tapping 

 Balanocarpns maximiis but we have not heard more of this movement. 

 Bulletin VI. 138), and Mr. Moorhouse published an account of Damar 

 tapping in Bulletin IV., p. 124 (See also Damars and wood oils by H. 

 N. Ridley, Journ. Roy. As. Soc No. 34, p. 89/ 



Manila Copal or Almaciga is obtained from the coniferous tree 

 Agathis alba or Damara alba- Some account of this is given by Mr. 

 Foxworthy in the Philippine Journal of Science, May 1910 p. 173. 

 The resin found in hard lumps in the forks of trees or in masses 

 in the ground at the base, is collected by the Tagbuanas of 

 Palawan. The tree also occurs it appears, in Borneo, on Mt. Poe, 

 Sarawak, where Beccari found the resin at the foot of the tree. 

 It is collected by the Dyaks, and Beccari gives the name of Dammar 

 Daghin (Damar Daging) to it. This name, however, is usually 

 applied to the resin of one of the Shoreas. Mr. Foxworthy found 

 the Land Dyaks collecting it there under the name of Damar 

 Bindang. They ascended the tree by a ladder of pegs driven into it 

 and tying saplings thereto and by this means collected the resin on 

 the branches. Warburg (Monsunia 1 182-185) gives the Damara of 

 the Malay Peninsula as a different species under the name of 

 D/iomboiaalis. It is abundant and of large size on the Taiping hills 

 and on Penang hill and produces much turpentine, but this does not 

 seem to set into the clear hard blocks which are obtained from Manila. 

 I have seen a stream of the turpentine flowing across the path up the 

 Taiping hills where a root had been cut. The Malays call it Damar 

 minyak, oil damar which rather impies, that it does not set hard. 

 Manila Copal is much valued and it would be worth while investigat- 

 ing our Damara trees to see if a similar product not be obtained. 



